


Moonlight Launderette

by wanderingbarks



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: 3 for the price of 1 AUs, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Bakery and Coffee Shop, Coffee Shops, Doctor/Patient, F/M, Laundry, Surgery, surgeon ben solo, the laundromat fic no one asked for, the laundromat is also a café so you get a café au as well
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:36:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23859925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderingbarks/pseuds/wanderingbarks
Summary: Rey is a grad student working at a launderette café serving coffees and dry-cleaning laundry. Ben Solo is a surgeon who has no time to make his own breakfast or coffee, nevermind do his laundry.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 16
Kudos: 63





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is currently a twitter fic which I (try to) regularly update on my twitter account (@villainlore). When I finish writing a chapter on twitter I'll upload it on here so it's easier to read/navigate. Thanks so much to everyone who has been supporting and following the story so far. It means a whole lot to me <3
> 
> (ALSO disclaimer I know nothing about medicine so I'll try to keep details to a minimum to avoid inaccuracies. You know the drill - I'm not a doctor please only follow the advice of a qualified health care professional etc etc)

** Chapter One **

The spring weather was more uncomfortable working at the Launderette than in the summer months. The weather was extremely unpredictable in April. Often Rey ended up wearing woolly jumpers when it was sunny and thin tank tops when it was cold and rainy.

She was grateful at least, for the sunshine which poured over the plants in the windowsill making it look like a mini forest grew under the large windows. Although the sunlight made it warmer which wasn’t ideal when she was sweating over the stove or the ironing board during the day.

Rey couldn’t complain too much though, it paid her tuition fees and her rent comfortably enough. Her boss, Amilyn Holdo, was very kind and often invited her over for dinners. It was just… tiring and she was looking forward to graduating soon. She was also eager to have a graduate salary which didn’t require her to dry clean the questionable stains on Mr Higgins' trousers or make blondie pumpkin spice oat milk flat-whites or whatever weird combination the customer ordered that afternoon.

Soon the sun had set over the hospital building from across the Launderette and Rey was finally reaching closing hours. Thankfully, it was a Tuesday and she didn’t have to open the bar as they did on weekends when Amilyn invited local folk bands or ran indie film screenings.

It would be a cosy night in for Rey with her pyjamas on by seven p.m. after a warm bath and a casserole in the oven. She might even pop on an old Star Trek episode. She couldn’t wait.

It had started raining. Rey sighed, wishing she had brought her umbrella from home. Even though she only lived a few minutes away, she really wasn’t in the mood to get soaked.

When the clock above the blackboard menu struck six, Rey walked over to the front door and turned the ‘Open’ sign over to ‘Closed – see you tomorrow!’ before locking the door behind her. It was just her left to lock up for the night. Rose was off sick with the flu and Amilyn had a meeting at the Town Hall. The place felt eerily quiet except for the dryers rumbling in the back room and Rey stacking the chairs on top of the tables ready for mopping.

Rey grabbed the mop and bucket from the cleaning cupboard, and after filling it with water and floor cleaner, she began mopping the floors of the café. As she strained the mop into the bucket hole, there was a sudden knock on the glass entrance door.

Rey instinctively yelled “We’re closed,” before even looking up to see who it was, but she held her breath as when she saw the tall man that was stood outside in the rain, holding up a laundry bag in his right hand. He was wearing scrubs. She had seen his face before, briefly when he took his surgical mask off. And it dawned on her who it was - the doctor who operated on her a few months ago.

Raindrops trickled down the windowpanes. Rey swallowed as she stared at the man with soaked scrubs and no umbrella waiting for her to open the door.

The closing hours rule was that once the door was locked, no more customers were allowed to enter. Rose had told her this when Rey had first started out at the launderette - _if you let one customer cross the boundaries then there'd be a tidal wave of others._

But it was wet outside and he looked utterly… soaked and exhausted. And no one else was around, so no one else would know she let in just this _one_ time an extra customer.

Rey groaned, leaning the mop on the end of the counter and made her way over to open the door. "Hi, can I help?” she practically had to yell over the sound of the pattering, heavy rain.

"I know you just closed..." the man began, rubbing his other hand through his dark, wet hair, "I wanted to come earlier, but I had back-to-back surgeries. Any chance I could get this stuff washed and ironed?"

Rey bit her lip as she thought of a polite enough response, "We don't leave the machines on overnight and I'm about to clock out. You'd have to pick it up tomorrow."

The man sighed. Rey wondered whether he recognised her from the surgery. Probably not... She was likely just another random patient ID number to him. But she remembered him. Dr Ben Solo. How could she forget the man that cut her up and stitched her back together? And the name tag on his scrubs confirmed that she had remembered his name correctly.

Dr Solo broke her mind's reminiscence of her time on the surgical table with his nod, "I understand. Trouble is I'm based in the other hospital across town tomorrow and I don't finish till 8pm."

This time Rey ran a hand through her hair, thinking of a solution and struggling. "You don't have a friend who could pick it up for you?" she probed, watching the rain drip from his dark locks.

The man stared at her, his dark amber eyes barely a metre from hers, "You think surgeons have time to make friends?" he said so seriously that Rey couldn't tell if he was joking or mocking her naivety.

"I... I suppose not," Rey muttered. "Sorry, I'm not sure what to do. Maybe you could..." she began not really sure how to finish the sentence, she was trying to think of something.

"Come inside for a bit, so I don't get more soaked?" he finished for her, his brow raised.

Rey blinked, then motioned for him to come inside the porch. _This guy_ , she thought to herself, who has the guts to arrive _after closing hours_ and invite himself in. Yet, something about him still tugged at her stiff heartstrings. Maybe it was the tiredness in his eyes or his soaked scrubs.

Dr Solo stood on the entrance mat and looked around the place, then he locked his gaze onto her. Those same eyes were the ones she saw before she was anesthetized, the rest of his face was covered by a surgical mask until she woke up again.

Rey cleared her throat, "Let me get you a towel," she said all of a sudden as she felt her cheeks warming.

He nodded silently and waited for her in the same spot. Rey headed to the back room and rummaged the cleaning cupboard for the fresh bathroom towels they keep in rotation. She didn't know why her hands were so jittery as she searched.

When she returned, she handed him a clean hand towel. "Thanks," he muttered and then dried his face and scrubbed his wet hair with it as if he were a wet dog who just got out of a shower. Rey bit her lip from laughing.

"I've never been to a launderette before," the doctor said as he handed Rey the wet hand towel. She threw the towel in the basket next to the laundry counter to wash later.

"Never?" Rey frowned, "Not even as a student?" Dr Solo shook his head, "I lived with my uncle when I was a medical student. And ever since I moved out, all the places I've rented had their own machines."

"But you're here now?" Rey wasn't quite sure whether she meant it as a question or a statement. She realised she still had her café apron on, untying it from the back and resting it on the laundry counter.

"I bought a new house. I'm still living out of boxes and I have no washing machine or iron," he sighed, pursing his lips, "...and a pile of laundry to do. I could've sworn you guys were open late when I looked on the website."

Rey nodded, "We do but only on Fridays and weekends when we open the bar, hence why it's called the Moonlight Launderette."

Dr Solo frowned - Rey wasn't sure if he was contemplating or disapproving, "And you have a café too?" he asked nodding to the stacked chairs.

"Yeah, we serve hot drinks and food during the day... sandwiches, soups, pies, cakes, that kind of thing," Rey then moved over to walk behind the laundry counter and opened up the logbook. "Anyway, about your washing," she began. "We don't usually offer this service so it's a one-off, but I can deliver it to you tomorrow evening if you don't live too far away?" Rey looked up from her logbook with her brow raised.

"You would do that?" he cocked his brow, clearly puzzled by her offer. Rey pointed a pen at him, "I'll have to give you a delivery fee for the petrol, and only if you live less than ten miles away."

The man nodded, "Understandable. I live just in Oak Paths," then he frowned again, "You seem to be going through a lot of trouble for me."

 _A thanks would be just fine_ , Rey thought to herself but plastered a service smile on her face instead. "Driving four roads North is hardly trouble," she shrugged, "anyway, I'll weigh your washing, and then if you could write down your details and address here, I'll arrange that for you."

The wet surgeon was still frowning but he nodded, "Thanks, I... appreciate it," he replied and then walked over to the counter and began scribbling his contact details down in the logbook. Some stray raindrops fell from his dark hair onto the countertop.

Rey got a stepping stool from underneath the counter. The only empty baskets left were on top of the cupboards, so she reached up on her tiptoes to grab the top one and pull it from the stack below. Only when she stretched on the stool, she felt a sharp pain run through her abdomen, right where her scars were, and Rey shrieked in pain.

She swayed, so light-headed from the sudden pain that it took Rey a few seconds to notice the large hands and strong arms around her. She heard the words "I'm going to help you down," spoken into her left ear but she couldn't fully process them - or what was happening.

Her eyes flickered, but everything was still hazy around the edges of her vision. It almost hurt to keep them open. Before she knew it, she was lifted off the stool, carried by the surgeon in his arms. There was a sofa in the café area where he gently laid her down.

The leather of the couch felt cold on her bare arms and it startled her. She could smell the remnants of coffee stains on the seat. Her eyelids were lighter again and she opened them. She saw the doctor kneeling beside her, observing.

"It's Rey isn't it?" Dr Solo asked, "What happened? Tell me what hurts," he placed the back of his hand on her forehead to check her temperature.

Rey frowned staring at him, her head still felt fuzzy, "You remember my name?"

He smiled at that, almost as if he found her surprise amusing. "I operated on you for three hours, yes, I remember you." He removed his hand from her forehead and she almost felt cold from the loss of contact. "Well, it doesn't seem you have any fever, which is a good sign."

"Why didn't you say something earlier about remembering me?"

His gaze was unflinching at her question, he only raised a curved brow, "Why didn't you?"

"Touché," she muttered. Rey still felt funny, not in pain anymore but like she was half drunk, looser somehow.

“Has the pain subsided?” his little smile faded and was replaced by a look of unease again.

Rey nodded, “Mostly, I still feel a bit dizzy though.”

“May I see your surgery scars?” Dr Solo murmured, low and quiet. Any other noise like the rumbling of the dryers in the back or the heavy rain on the roof made Rey feel dizzier, but his voice was soothing beside her like soft thunder.

Rey nodded as she lay on the sofa, her head propped up on a cushion on the sofa arm.

He looked at her for a lingering moment to confirm her approval, and then gently lifted her t-shirt up to look at her abdomen. Rey tried to lift her head from the cushion slightly to see what he was observing even though she was familiar with her scars from looking at them pretty much on a daily basis in the mirror. By now she had memorised their curves and bumps, and the darkening scabs at the centre of the lesions he had made.

“They haven’t healed properly,” Dr Solo spoke, no longer a quiet murmur but a concerned assertion.

Rey bit her lip as he examined them, she knew his expression wasn’t a good sign. She could feel his breath on her belly and she was conscious of her own breathing as her chest and stomach rose and deflated under his gaze.

“Did you keep them dry for long enough after the surgery?” Dr Solo shifted his eyes from her abdomen to her face again. Her shirt was still lifted up and her stomach felt a little cold and exposed at his inspection.

“I thought I did, and I covered it with Vaseline for the first few days. I couldn’t take a lot of time off work and I always have to move around and reach for stuff and bend over,” she sighed not knowing how else to explain.

His brow furrowed in a mix of concern and something else – frustration maybe? It was hard to tell, for at that moment his face seemed hard and set as marble. Finally, he exhaled and covered her abdomen again with her top. “How much time did you take off before going back to work?”

Rey sat up, the dizziness was slowly subsiding and she was suddenly aware of how close he was kneeling next to her. “I’m not sure, maybe a week and a half?” she braved looking up from the floor to his face as she answered.

He blinked, pressing his eyes closed and she could tell he was restraining a sigh. “A week and a half is too short. It’s going to take longer for the scars to close up fully. Have you been having other symptoms? You looked like you were about to faint on the stool…”

Rey thought for a moment, playing with a loose thread from her shirt. “It’s never been that bad. It’s usually just a bit of nausea and dizziness but normally when I’m too hot or I’ve been working too long,” she explained.

Dr Solo raised an eyebrow, “And have you been working too long today?”

Rey looked over to the apron she left on the counter, she struggled to hold his stare – it was the scrutinous gaze of a skilled surgeon searching for information, “Maybe… My co-worker is off sick so I had to cover early this morning as well.”

“And now I’m making you stay later too,” he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Rey felt a knot in her stomach form, “You don’t have to feel guilty, you’ve only kept me for like ten minutes, really it’s nothing-.”

He interrupted her before she could finish, “Are you driving or walking home?”

“Walking and then a bus, it’s not too far,” Rey replied.

“I can give you a lift,” he said.

“Really there’s no need, I can walk fine.”

“If you would go through the extra trouble for me with my laundry, then let me at least do something for you.”

Rey rolled her eyes, “You’re a stubborn surgeon, did anyone ever tell you that?”

Dr Solo deliberately ignored her question and instead helped her up from the couch, “Come on, I’ll help you close up. I’m afraid I’m parked in the hospital car park so it’s a short walk.”

They worked together to finish the final tasks before closing. He helped her reach the basket she had been trying to grab earlier. She placed his laundry in the washing area ready for when they opened up tomorrow morning, checked that all machines and stoves were off, and then locked the shop.

As they stepped outside again Rey held her hands out to catch the large drops of rain in the palm of her hand.

“Here,” he said, taking off his grey jacket that he was wearing on top of his scrubs, “use it to as an umbrella to cover yourself.”

She shrugged, “It’s only a bit of water.”

He sighed, “So you don’t get your scars wet. I think I’ve solved the mystery as to why they haven’t healed.”

“That’s a matter of opinion,” she retorted. The sun was setting and bathed the horizon in an auburn glow. They continued bickering over the jacket and who should be the one to get soaked as they walked through the rain showers all the way to the hospital car park.

“Listen,” he said as he parked in front of her apartment building, “I know your follow-up appointment isn’t for another month but if you call my department tomorrow morning and explain, they can set you an appointment with me sooner.”

“Do you think it’s bad?”

“No, your scars should heal, it’s just to have a post-op examination.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Rey sighed as she stepped out of his car. It was a black audi, so new that she felt like she was spoiling it with just touching the door handle.

He leaned towards the window as he rolled it down, “I won’t be using anything sharp this time, I promise,” he said with a vicious smirk.

Rey flung her rucksack over her shoulder, “How do I know I can trust you?”

“Because you have my laundry.”

“So? You could always buy new clothes if I burnt your other ones in revenge,” Rey retorted.

“And I’m a world-renowned surgeon,” the doctor stated matter-of-factly.

Rey rolled her eyes, and before she could thank him for the lift, he rolled up the car window and drove off.

 _What an arse_ , Rey muttered into the night. Yet she couldn’t help but feel relieved that he had been there to help before she passed out or whatever. Luck or providence, she hated to think what would’ve happened if the soaked surgeon hadn’t turned up to the launderette that Tuesday night.


	2. Chapter 2

The porridge on the stove started to bubble just as Rey’s housemate, Rose, walked into their shared kitchen with her duvet wrapped around her, dragging herself across the floor like a walking burrito.

“Hey, you feeling any better?” Rey asked as she cupped her mug of coffee closer to her chest, briefly inhaling the scent of the freshly brewed Columbian blend which Finn gave her for her birthday last month.

Rose made a grumbling sound, “Sort of,” she sighed, “One thing's for sure I'm never eating at that waffle place again. In fact, I never want to even _see_ a waffle ever again.”

Rey placed the back of her hand on her best friend's forehead to check her temperature. No fever, it seemed. Then Rey recalled Dr Solo placing his large hand over her own forehead last night and Rey quickly placed her hand back on her mug at the sudden recollection.

Turning back towards the stove, she distracted herself by stirring the porridge, “I thought you had the flu. You sure it was the waffle place that made you ill?”

Rose nodded as she poured hot water from the kettle, into her mug of tea, “I'm pretty sure. I don't want to tell you how dirty the tables were.”

Rey shuddered, “Gross. We should send Amilyn there, she'll give them a three-hour lecture on food safety and then she'd bake them cookies.” She poured the hot porridge into her breakfast bowl and got out a jar of raspberry jelly from the fridge and scooped a generous dollop into her bowl.

“How did your extra shift go, yesterday? Did the creepy electrician come round again? I hid in the kitchen last time until Amilyn took over.”

Rey laughed, “No thankfully not. Though it was a strange shift… the surgeon who operated on me came to drop off some laundry just as I was about to close.”

“The surgeon you had after your injury?” Rose sat on the kitchen stool, still with her blanket wrapped around her head, and grabbed the box of cereal on the counter.

Rey handed the milk and a breakfast bowl to her, “Yep, it was weird. I kind of felt light-headed at one point and he helped me to the sofa and then looked at my scars.”

Rose stopped pouring her cereal and glanced at Rey, “Gosh, are you okay? I know you’re still having to take pain meds for it.”

Rey shrugged, “Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry, I have another appointment with him. I felt bad that he couldn’t pick up the laundry for the next day because of his work so I offered to deliver his laundry at his house tonight.”

“Rey, if you start-” Rose began.

“I know, I know. _If you do a favour for one customer then the dam bursts_. But it’s just a one-off, trust me.”

The smell of cinnamon toast wafted through the kitchen. Rose swallowed a spoonful of fruit loops and raised her brow, “Is he good looking?”

A snort emitted from Rey’s nose, “I mean, I guess if I think about it, but in an unconventional way… I don’t know. He also looks about ten years older than me, so he’s probably married or whatever. It’s not like I would _date_ him.”

“If there’s no wedding ring-” Rose said pointing her spoon at Rey.

“Rose, he’s my doctor! Let alone one of our customers. Amilyn would freak.”

“Oh Kaydel has definitely broken that rule so I wouldn’t stress,” Rose laughed, rolling her eyes. “Well, if you’re not going to date him, at least wear some nice perfume when you next see him so he might leave you a tip.”

“I’m not going to be seeing him, I’m just dropping off his laundry at his house and then I’m going to make sure that Amilyn deals with his payment because it’s too awkward to see him again. Especially after last night,” Rey shuddered.

“If you tell Amilyn the whole story, you know she’ll waver his payment and probably invite you and him over for thanksgiving. That man saved your life.”

Rey sighed, “Which is precisely why me cleaning his underwear and dropping it off at his house is extremely awkward.”

Rose snorted again, “You’ll survive, you’ve survived a lot worse.”

*

“You have arrived at your destination,” the robotic voice of the Sat-Nav spoke in the car as Rey drove down Oak Paths Close in her little Peugeot. The sign and the Sat-Nav both confirmed that she was on the right road, but all Rey could see were tall trees and a muddy off-road lane – there was no sign of a house anywhere. Although she was only thirty minutes away from her neighbourhood in the car, Rey had never wandered past the old mechanic shop – beyond it was mainly woodlands and reservation trails. Oak Paths was tediously bumpy - the gravel and upturned tree roots were unforgiving to Rey’s tyres and her vehicle was _definitely_ not a four-wheel drive.

Rey swallowed nervously as she observed the dark, rural surroundings of the area, _what if he was a creepy murderer living in a cabin?_ She looked up from the car window at the small mountainous terrain covered in fir trees beyond the lane. She was not prepared to wander the forests and mountain with a heavy bag of laundry to find this guy’s house – even if he did save her life in the surgical theatre room, she wasn’t ready to lose it by being murdered in the woods by a roaming bear or a tall and dark-haired surgeon.

“Where does this guy live?” Rey muttered to herself and turned the car radio off as she continued driving slowly along the muddy lane, trying to spot some form of human dwelling.

Soon she reached the end of the lane and the road stopped. Rey turned her engine off and got out of her car to get a better view of her surroundings, using the light on her phone as a torch. She could see a pair of outdoor lamps at the top of a small hill and there was a winding drive towards it. Rey squinted in the dark and could make out the outline of a roof in between the swaying tops of the tall firtrees. Rey walked towards the bottom of the drive and shone her phone light around. Eventually, she spotted an engraved sign on a crumbling stone wall. The sign read “West House” which was the name on the address the doctor gave her in the logbook.

Rey hurried back to her car and slowly made her way up the drive.

*

Dr Solo had given her instructions to search for the spare key which was hidden under a plant pot next to the greenhouse at the side of the house. It was dark and only a few garden lights were lit, but Rey couldn’t process just how big the surgeon’s house was. You could probably fit her and Rose’s apartment four times over in this house. It also looked quite old, with grey stones similar to the ones Rey remembers from Welsh castles from her childhood walks. Most of the large houses in the more suburban areas of Firgrove were modern McMansions that Rey kind of hated, but this house looked like it belonged to an Edwardian lord.

After many failed attempts near the greenhouse, Rey finally picked up the right plant pot and found a lone silver key shining back at her.

Rey trudged back round the house to the front door and turned the key in the lock. She opened the door, gingerly, and took a few steps into the foyer. The house was dark, and the steps of her boots echoed on the laminate wood flooring. She then turned back to her car and got the large zipper bag of clean laundry out from her boot. It was heavy as it held quite a few kilos of the surgeon’s laundry. Rey huffed and puffed as she made quick strides back to the house’s entrance and then placed the bag on an empty chair at the end of the foyer, sighing in relief once she let go of the weight.

As she returned to the front door, Rey thought she heard footsteps at the top of the stairs. Rey held her breath for a moment to hear better, but whatever sound she heard wasn’t there anymore. Perhaps it was the wind knocking something over outside.

“Hello? Dr Solo?” she called up the stairs, but it seemed fairly dark up there. There was no answer.

Rey shook herself out of her nervousness and made it back towards her car, making sure to lock up the house, placing the key back underneath the same plant pot by the greenhouse. She got her car keys out from her back jeans pocket and turned the car key in the ignition.

The engine revved up slowly, but it wouldn’t turn on. Rey grumbled, it was an old car, and sometimes the engine was reluctant to wake up when it was frosty in winter, but it wasn’t that cold. Rey tried turning the key again and again and each time the engine made a croaky coughing sound.

“Shit,” Rey muttered in the silence of her car and ran a hand through her hair. She only passed her driving test a year ago and she had no clue what you were supposed to do when your car broke down. She took a deep breath to calm her panic and reached for her phone on the passenger seat.

Rey googled the name of the mechanic shop that she passed on her way to Oak Paths and found their telephone number on the website. She waited for someone to pick up but after fifteen rings, the answering machine announced that the “emergency mechanic was out right now, please leave a message after the tone.” Rey left a half-hopeful message on the mechanic’s answering machine stating that her engine wasn’t working and that she was stuck in Oak Paths and then hung up the phone.

She could feel a cold sweat forming on her temples and she tried to keep her hands from shaking as she googled other local mechanics, but they were all closed at this time of night. Rey tried to ring Amilyn but there was no answer from her either, and that’s when her phone died. The panic that started to form in Rey’s chest felt like a heavy fever. She tried starting the engine again in desperate hope, but it just continued to make a dreadful din. Rey leaned back and sunk the back of her head into the driver’s seat and closed her eyes in despair.

Everything was quiet again apart from her heartbeats until she heard a knock at her driver’s window. Rey jumped in her seat and held a hand to her chest. Soon, she recognised the tall figure crouching at the height of her window, and his dark hair falling around his ears.

Dr Solo opened her car door, “Need a hand?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has been *checks calendar* almost eight months since I've updated this story but I finally managed to drag myself back to the writing desk [Michael Scott stress smiling meme].
> 
> O dear Reader, you have been so wonderfully patient! 
> 
> Always in my heart, forever in my dreams.


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